Bacchus motorcycle gang moves to Halifax

The new Bacchus clubhouse on Old Sambro Road in Harrietsfield. (MITCH WARD)

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Nova Scotia’s only outlaw motorcycle gang recently moved its lone chapter to Halifax and has a new lakeside clubhouse in Harrietsfield.

Bacchus is now being run out of a beige-sided, single-storey building at 770 Old Sambro Rd. The clubhouse backs onto Weavers North Lake, has a front door with a gang logo and a sign above the door advertises it as the home of Bacchus Halifax.

Thick curtains blocked any attempts to look through doors and windows on a recent morning and a large privacy fence accomplished the same for a deck behind the building.

The listed owner of the property, assessed at $128,500, is a numbered company from New Brunswick. Its mailing address is in Edgetts Landing, N.B., which is in Albert County, the home of the original Bacchus chapter.

RCMP Const. Cindy Cullen of the combined forces intelligence unit said recent changes in the gang’s membership made it more convenient for them to relocate their old chapter out of Hants County in favour of their new home.

“Some members left, some new members came in and they essentially moved to Halifax. I think it’s more logistical for them.”

The numbers occasionally change, but there are thought to be 12 members in the gang, she said.

“The president, from our understanding, is Dean Huggan.”

Cullen said police knew the gang was buying the building back in January. The bikers like to have a home to socialize and to hold gatherings and weekly mandated meetings, she said.

The RCMP have not received any complaints from neighbours of the clubhouse on Old Sambro Road. A house and an apartment building sit adjacent.

Cullen said bikers do their best to maintain good relations with neighbours.

“It’s definitely not their intention to upset their neighbours because that would just increase police attention to their property.”

As it is, Cullen said police intend to keep an eye on the building, especially during meetings and parties.

Bacchus has three chapters in New Brunswick and one each in Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. It is independent of the Hells Angels but maintains a good relationship with that gang, Cullen said.

Nova Scotia is the home of four biker clubs that are puppet clubs of the Hells Angels. Three of them are chapters of Gatekeepers and are based in Pictou County, the Eastern Shore and Bridgewater. The Bridgewater bikers were once called Darksiders.

Cullen said they are all on friendly terms and intermingle at gatherings.

The main difference between Bacchus and the others is that Bacchus members wear the 1% patch that implies membership in an outlaw motorcycle gang.

“They’ve essentially classified themselves as an outlaw (group),” she said. “The Darksiders and Gatekeepers have simply chosen not to do that.”

A former president of Bacchus hailed from Hants County.

However, Paul Roderick Fowler, 45, faces charges of attempted murder, uttering threats, assault, possession of a weapon and unsafe storage of firearms after an alleged hammer attack on New Year’s Eve in 2012.

Three other members, Patrick James, David Pearce and Duane Howe, face charges of uttering threats, intimidation and criminal organization that stem from a September 2012 search at the old Bacchus clubhouse in Nine Mile River and homes in Dartmouth, Nine Mile River and Grand Desert. Those searches allegedly turned up Bacchus vests, marijuana, steroids, magic mushrooms, computers and cellphones.

In April 2000, Tantallon RCMP charged Huggan, then 35, with trafficking and weapons offences after a seizure that netted 3.5 kilograms of hash, 659 grams of marijuana, a small amount of crack and a loaded handgun.

In November 2006, police nabbed Huggan again. He was the main target in a 17-month Prince Edward Island trafficking investigation that saw 18 people arrested.

Bacchus, which organized in New Brunswick in 1972, first came to Nova Scotia when a chapter opened in Hants County in January 2010.